Tameside tops a league table of places with the highest increase in congestion at 38.6 per cent over the last decade - more than twice the national average of 16 per cent.
Oldham was second with 34.5 per cent. The list was compiled by the Campaign for Better Transport, formerly Transport 2000. Both boroughs are due to get Metrolink in the next phase of extensions already agreed by the government - whether controversial congestion charging plans go ahead or not.
They are far ahead of other areas in the list, taken from the government's own statistics for traffic growth between 1995 and 2005.
Doncaster was third with 28.8 per cent, followed by South Gloucestershire and Leicestershire.
One explanation for the increase is the completion of the M60 ring road almost a decade ago and the opening of retail parks at Ashton Moss, Tameside, and Elk Mill, Oldham.
Roy Oldham, leader of Tameside council, blamed the area's problems on its geographical position. He said: "We have great amounts of cross-Pennine traffic as well as people making their way to the Peak District.
"Over the past decade, thousands of people have bought homes in Derbyshire and the only way for them to get into Manchester is through Tameside - cars are nose to tail in the morning and evening.
"The Peak District also has more than 21 million visitors a year, which further adds to congestion. We need better public transport systems with some regulation by the councils as well as park-and-ride systems which really work."
Oldham councillor Mike Buckley also wants more investment in public transport.
He said this, not the congestion charging system, was the right way to tackle congestion.
He said: "The best way of providing a public transport system which works for everyone is by returning the control of the system to the local authorities."
The government predicts there will be 5.7million more cars on the roads by 2031, a growth of 21 per cent.
Simply parking these cars would fill a 52-lane motorway all the way from Edinburgh to London, said the Campaign for Better Transport. It claims the result will be traffic hell.
The campaign's Stephen Joseph said: "The government must give people good alternatives to driving."
The organisation is demanding better rail services with longer trains and platforms as well as new lines and cheaper fares. It also wants better bus services, more integration, and travel plans with tax incentives for business and leisure.
New housing and commercial developments, it says. should be built around high-quality public transport such as trams, to give people real travel choices.
It demands a reduction in road building and the introduction of road pricing like the Greater Manchester proposals to introduce congestion charging in return for £3bn of public transport improvements. Tweet
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Ho hum, another "Congestion is bad and getting worse so we need a congestion charge!" story from the MEN.
Bear in mind Stephen Joseph is a major player in Transport 2000 (anti-car people) so anything he spouts can be dismissed as anti-car propaganda.
Congestion is growing as Greater Manchester is a VERY successful place - all these people in these cars will either be earning money or spending money....you know, the sort of thing that keeps the economy going?
Exactly the sort of thing a Congestion Charge will kill stone dead very quickly!
Mike Buckley is right!
The goverment should be ploughing some of the £50bn it takes off car owners already into a decent public transport system.
Why pay hundreds of thousands on a Congestion charging scheme, when the infrastructure for taxing motorists is already working so well? London has already shown that it doesn't actually raise any money when it's in place.
God forbid anyone else should be taxed to pay for it.. like the people who would use it.
Of course it is - it's due to bus lanes, humps, traffic calming, one-ways etc etc.
Did anyone else notice as soon as AGMA gave GMPTE approval to submit its TiF bid that loads of road works popped up.
there are lots of little things being done now in Greater Manchester to artificially create congestion.
Here's a nice one for you.
These carbon off setting schemes were you pay to off set your carbon emmissions into green schemes
someone worked out, if you took all the tax the average car user pays, and put it into an off setting scheme, car users pay enough tax to off set their carbon emmissions twice over.
Tameside tops a league table of places with the highest increase in congestion at 38.6 per cent over the last decade
Perhaps all the new factory's offices, stores, cinema complexs etc that have sprung up in the last decade - not to mention the M60 which make access easier has something to do with it. I do believe that there is a stadium in Stretford where congestion has gone from 55,000 in 1995 to over 76,000. It is only in places on the slide where "congestion" goes down.
Aye Simon - the current 'price' under the ETS for a tonne of Carbon is about £13.50 - in a small car to do the mileage to create that much Carbon would cost you around 800 pounds in fuel alone....since about 70 percent of the price of fuel is tax then in effect what 'major' polluters pay to offset 1 tonne of Carbon we road users are fleeced for £500 for the very same!
Overtaxed just isn't strong enough!
No wonder congestion is growing. At the weekend Mancunian Way was closed dring the day and then there was an 'art car parade' through the city centre which also caused congestion.
The Pride Parade on Bank Holiday weekend also caused lots of congestion.
Why do the council sanction such polluting and congesting parades?
I got caught in the congestion due to the Mancunian way being closed. The diversion was poorly signposted which resulted in most drivers turning left onto Deansgate only to have to turn around again at the roundabout.
I used the M60 for my return journey which was much quicker, but a greater distance. This is what will happen when the congestion charge comes into force, many drivers going out of their way to avoid it. Congestion will just be moved elswhere, giving AGMA an excuse to extend the scheme. There neede to be real investment in public transport giving people real choice about how they travel without peanilising the driver and ulimately all Greater Manchester residents.
Well if the councils stop making bus lanes and traffic calming bumps etc then maybe we will get traffic moving again.oh and by the way get rid of the 20mph outside schools after 4-30pm
I can't wait until the oil runs out.
Usual statistics without a scrap of what has caused all this congestion. Why do the councils not see that we are not all so stupid as to realise that much of the congestion is caused by bad planning like roadworks all at one time, out of town shopping and entertainment. Try getting your weekly shop onto a bus or get ripped off by extortionate taxi fares. Yes I know there is a corridor of free motoring but you can bet that won't last very long.(Moving and Goalposts come to mind) We the electorate demand a REFERENDUM but I suppose as usual with this government that request falls on deaf ears.
As I have pointed out before if all the motorist's leave their cars at home and use this super public transport system (ha, ha)that we are promised who the h--l is going to pay the congestion charge.Who wants to wait at a wet and windy bus stop with no shelter when you have a car parked outside, not me.
Yours Rick Wilde.
The congestion charge bandwagon rolls again. Will someone please tell them that we are not stupid - the only way to get things sorted is to get rid of all the leftwing, self important numpties, aka local councils. I am amazed that the brain dead councillors/planners at Tameside do not realise that turning allotments into huge retail and leisure parks would increase traffic - or do they expect us to go to Ikea and carry a flat pack on the 'magic' bus. I live in Tameside and blame the council for 90% of congestion,ie graffiti(white lines), humps, one way systems and traffic light sequences.
little star, Cheshire
You are so right that shopping malls are are the main cause of all this traffic.We dont have any little shopping areas for locals anymore. infact our local markets are being phased out so that will put even more pressure on the roads. gorton market is going and being replaced by a tesco grey mare lane market is being run down because of the council rents"They know what they are up to" designed for the sole reason of shutting the market.All these will cause even more congestion....
The congestion charge is a revenue raising exercise to pay for public transport improvements and reduce congestion. As Richard quite rightly points out, for the scheme to work, people need to pay the charge.
I ask those who demand public transport improvements but oppose the charge: where would you make cuts in public spending to pay for the public transport? Evryone seems to think there's a bit pot of money sitting about waiting to be used, but that's just not the case is it?
Simon B, your paranoia is reaching new heights. Not once does the article mention it supports a congestion charge, it merely states the FACT that congestion is getting worse. Are you suggesting that such facts aren't news-worthy?
Munkey boy,
As the London charge has proved, C-charging is a very inefficient way of raising revenue.
A more sensible approach would be a "Local Tax" of say 5p per litre of fuel bought in Greater Manchester going to Public Transport.
Once Public transport is running efficiently, safely and securely, you will find that motorists will willingly use it.
Even you, as pro as you are to this ridiculous idea, have to admit that there are better options than the TIF bid propose.
As this article is read the Mottram ByPass Road Scheme which is NOT about congestion in 3 Villages,ie Mottram,Hollingworth,& Tintwistle but the hidden agenda of all these denoted organisations intent on establishing an M62 MK11 highway from the M1 to the M60,with many thousands of extra daily vehicles into our
region.The Tameside Leader R.Oldham ios the master at denying reality,and his deliberate policies have ensured these traffic volumes exist,in fact he has spent £800,000 of Council Tax Payers money on promoting the M1-M60 direct route olan with his Mottram ByPass scheme.
The truth is being held back from the 220,000 residents of Tameside,and I for one intend to spend 1.5 days at the Public Inmquiry exposing the duplicity,deceptions,and expose the real truth which the media are also ignoring.Witnesses at thePublic Inquiry supporting the scheme openly admit they want more transport from Humberside,All Area`s of Yorkshire etc travelling daily over the Penines along the proposed Mottram ByPass,for Shoppers,Ringway,HGV`s times
far easier access from the North East.
If the M.E.N want to allopw me to report the truth of whats occuring then stop blocking my Postbag contributions and let me have the same media access as the Supporters have been given.NO they will not because of vested interests,so come on M.E.N you can easily contact me and lets have the real truth in the media.
The Tameside Advertiser,the Tameside Reporter have been blocking my true statements as well,so believe me the truth of what is going on is being deliberately hidden from the Electorate because those in powerful positions are linked to the media,and ensure we learn "nowt" of the reality.
John Hall
Denton
Very paragraph.
"It demands a reduction in road building and the introduction of road pricing like the Greater Manchester proposals to introduce congestion charging in return for £3bn of public transport improvements"
And the MEN is helping the situation with competitions to win driving lessons...!
New roads attract new traffic, what did Tameside expect building the M60 and Ashton Northern Bypass??
Never mind another killer quote from Roy Oldham: "Over the past decade, thousands of people have bought homes in Derbyshire and the only way for them to get into Manchester is through Tameside - cars are nose to tail in the morning and evening".
FACT - the main route between Manchester and Derbyshire is the A6 through Hazel Grove, Disley and New Mills. As their long suffering residents will testify. A6 does not pass through Tameside.
FACT - these second "holiday" homes tend to be located in the A6 corridor/White Peak area (think Hope Valley, Bakewell, etc.), not scruffy, depressing Woodhead or Longdendale.
FACT - the poor record of Labour on delivering anything but unaffordable house prices, increased traffic congestion, and debt mountain of car credit is the reality of all this.
FACT - Tameside is increasing congestion FURTHER by building a new shopping centre at Mottram Roundabout, convieniently placed for all that cross-Pennine traffic. It managed to get the land by bulldozing council housing by declaring it "unfit", much like the Pathfinder scandals in Salford, Stoke-on-Trent and Burnley.
Wake up and smell the poo people!!
Just another scary headline to try to justify the congestion charge. Nobody has said where people are gong to get the money from to pay these extra motorist taxes. There are many people who work in Manchester and need their cars to carry out their jobs. Some have to travel in and out of the city centre during the day. Just to go in and out will cost at the very least £7 - who is going to receive an extra £35-£40 in their pay packet to pay for it. Nobody can afford that amount of drop in their wages. If |I could aford the investment I would be building more offices and shops out of the city centre. There will be lots of people put off shopping or working in the city centre if the charge comes in.I often have to go to Manchester Royal Informary for appointments - if they are during the time the charges are imposed it could cost me a lot of money just to get to the hospital and back. The way the boundaries are set out at present it could also cost us money to travel out of Salford to go to Worsley, Leigh or Bolton or to gert to the motorway. We could be marooned during certain hours.
John Hall, there is a slight flaw in your comments there. Apparently, I was told when I stated the case in the Hull Daily Mail for PTE for Humberside on the model of GMPTE (which the area over there badly needs - I should know I go over there often enough and there is no integration of the transport network over there like there we have the luxury of here) I was told in no uncertain terms that Humberside does not exist. They are a strange lot over there and get upset easily over things like that.
In reply to Munkeyboy when he states "without a congestion charge, where would you make cuts in public spending to pay for the public transport? Everyone seems to think there's a bit pot of money sitting about waiting to be used" Well Munkeyboy, there was a pot of money waiting to be used, however the ten Councils in their arrogant wisdom used £9.6 MILLION of it by submitting the TIF Bid. Would that money not have been better invested in improving the dreadful Public Transport System that Commuters have to deal with every single day. And do not say we will get this money back. Remember the Bid is based on incurring a further debt mountain of £2.8 Billion, to be repaid by you and me and my children over the next THIRTY YEARS. The whole concept is an utter disgrace and is just another stealth tax. Give the citizens of Greater Manchester a REFERENDUM now.